24 of the Weirdest Untranslatable Idioms in Europe

Idioms are “expressions whose meaning cannot be predicted from the meaning of its individual parts” therefore most of them do not make sense when translated literally into English.

Below are 24 idioms in the 24 official EU languages:

1. Bulgarian

Taking a look at the picture above we would all think that this idiom belongs to the Dutch but truth is that in Bulgariathey use the idiom “when the clogs blossom” (когатоцъфнатналъмите) to say “never”.

2. Croatian

In Croatian when you want to say that someone is crazy you can use “Vrane Su Mu Popile Mozak”, literally “cows have drunk his brain”.

3. Czech

A Czech will never say they “beat” you, they will say they’ve “shoved you into their pocket” (Strčit někoho do kapsy).

4. Danish

When you’re drunk in Denmark you can say at have en pind i øret which literally means “to have a stick in one’s ear”.

5. Dutch

6. English

This idiom is probably untranslatable into most of the European languages. If you hear an Englishman describing someone as being hairy at the heel he really means that he’s “untrustworthy” or even “dangerous”.

7. Estonian

In Estonia when you puust ja punaseks ette tegema (make something out of wood and paint it red) you are actually “making something really clear”.

8. Finnish

This Finnish idiom is probably the most explicit on our list. Poronkusema (reindeer’s piss) is the distance you can ride a reindeer before it needs to stop to pee (aprox. 7.5km).

9. French

If you hear a French asking you to “go and cook yourself an egg” (aller se faire cuire un œuf) they’re really asking you to leave them alone!